Rank bound for a matrix product ($\mathrm{rank}(AB)\le \min (\mathrm{rank}A,\mathrm{rank}B)$)

For composable linear maps, $\mathrm{im}(AB)=A(\mathrm{im}B)$ lies in $\mathrm{im}A$ and has dimension at most that of $\mathrm{im}B$. This proves the bound on the rank of a matrix product. When $A$ is $m\times p$, $B$ is $p\times n$, and $m,n\ge p$, the bound $p$ is attained by $A=\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{I_p}{0}\right)$ and $B=(I_{p}0)$.